Tolu raid

The Tolu raid occurred on 15 December 1989 when Colonel Horacio Carrillo and his Search Bloc special police unit raided Jose Rodriguez Gacha's ranch near Tolu, Colombia, hoping to kill the drug baron. The DEA wanted him alive, but he was shot dead in the ensuing gun battle.

Background
Jose Rodriguez Gacha was a former emerald smuggler who became a key player in the cocaine trade after forming a partnership with Pablo Escobar, Carlos Lehder, and the Ochoa Brothers in 1982; this partnership became the Medellin Cartel. Gacha was infamous for betraying his allies and being cruel to those that he did not like, shooting his own dog for failing to sniff out cocaine during a bet against Escobar and allowing his son Fredy Rodrigues Celades to shoot a maid in Cartagena in 1989. Gacha was responsible for killing the families of several policemen in the elite Search Bloc unit, and Colonel Horacio Carrillo wanted him dead, while the American DEA wanted him alive so that he could lead them to Escobar himself. Gacha was betrayed by his henchman Navegante, who sold him out to agents Steve Murphy and Javier Pena, and they tracked him down to his Cartagena villa. However, he had already fled the villa when they arrived, but they interrogated one of his fleeing guards and discovered that he was hiding at his ranch in Tolu.

Raid
On 15 December 1989, the Search Bloc soldiers arrived at the ranch on pontoon boats, and they left their boats and crept through the jungle. The first shots were fired when they took down a urinating bodyguard, and the other bodyguards began to open fire. A massive shootout began as dozens of Gacha's guards and the Search Bloc personnel traded fire, and Gacha used a shot from a rocket launcher to wound Carrillo in the head and kill some nearby policemen. As the policemen killed more of the Medellin hitmen, Gacha and his son Fredy entered their red Chevy pickup truck and tried to flee, gunning down two policemen in a car that tried to stop their escape. Carrillo contacted DEA agent Pena and told him about the make and color of Gacha's truck, and Pena arrived on the scene in an attack helicopter, which fired on the truck to prevent it from escaping. The truck was sprayed with fire, and Fredy was killed by some of the bullets. A sad and vengeful Gacha left his car and fired potshots at the helicopter until he ran out of bullets, and he taunted the helicopter. Carrillo told Agent Pena that it was his call for Gacha's fate, and he told the gunner to "give him lead". The helicopter gunner sprayed him with bullets, taking him down.

Aftermath
The Tolu raid was a great blow to the Medellin Cartel, and it was the first major successful operation by the Search Bloc. It also showed the world that the fight against the narcotraffickers had moved to a new level, and the Search Bloc would continue with its string of several raids as Escobar decided to launch a bombing campaign against the government. All-out war broke out, and the death toll rose rapidly on both sides as Escobar's army of informants kept him hidden and as the army continued to attack more and more villas.